and likely to be employed with dangerous success in
Spain at that time. One of the members of the Council having asserted to
Fray Reginaldo that the Indians were incapable of conversion, the friar
submitted this proposition to the Prior of San Esteban in Salamanca, one
of the most learned and influential men in the Dominican order, asking him
to invite a body of theologians to determine whether or no such an
affirmation was in accordance with Catholic doctrine, and to send him a
copy of the decision. Thirteen doctors of theology and other
ecclesiastical authorities replied with four or five signed conclusions,
the last of which defined that all who held or propagated that error
should be condemned to the stake as heretics. This was a weapon in Las
Casas's hands which circumstances might make formidable; it was no
trifling thing to be arraigned before the tribunal of the Inquisition on a
charge of holding heretical doctrines, for neither rank nor calling
availed to protect the offender, and it is somewhat astonishing that no
reference to use of this "opinion" being made by Las Casas in any given
case is found in the records of his struggle for the liberty of the
Indians.

King Charles, even in his boyhood, was of a grave and thoughtful
temperament, reserved and observant in an unusual degree, but however
richly endowed with gifts which promised him a glorious reign, he
necessarily left the administration of his government very largely under
the direction of his advisers, of whom the two most influential were
William de Croy, commonly called Chievres, or by the Spaniards, Xevres,
who had formerly been the King's governor, and Jean Salvage, a learned
priest who was Dean of the University of Louvain. The latter's name was
corrupted by the Spaniards into Juan Selvagio, and he held the office and
title of Grand Chancellor, both hitherto unknown in Spain. These Flemings
were odious to the Spaniards, who resented their high rank and influence
and looked upon them as rapacious foreigners, who were controlling
national affairs to the exclusion of those who had better claims, while
they enriched themselves out of the Spanish treasury: none of them so much
as spoke the national language and even the King's first task was to
master Spanish in order to converse with his own subjects.

As the Grand Chancellor had control of the department of justice, it was
to him that Las Casas first got himself presented. He was well received